


Beyond Justice

by Kairyn



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman Beyond, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Bat Family, Bat!Sass Overload, Gen, Secret Identity, Secrets, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Timeline What Timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-22 00:52:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13752819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairyn/pseuds/Kairyn
Summary: "Hey, Rob?""Yeah, Impulse?""Where are we?""GPS says Bludhaven.... that newspaper over there says about, oh, sixty some years before we should be.""Crash..."Young Justice team from Batman: Beyond's timline finds their way to the original team's time. Slightly self indulgent but hopefully a fun time.





	1. The offer

**Author's Note:**

> I always felt sorry for Terry never getting his own Robin. Every Bat needs a bird and Max shut that down. Even Damian would be too old by this point so Terrys got no boy wonder. Matt could work, I guess, but I never clicked with him sadly so I gave Terry an OC Robin. 
> 
> Also it'll take a few chapters to get to the time travel bit cause I wanna establish the Future Team.
> 
> .....I should so not be starting a new story but I have no self control... also that title is soooo original...

“… and then they started laughing like I’d just told a really funny joke or something.”

“I’m not sure if you should be relieved they didn’t believe you… or offended that their first reaction was to laugh hysterically at the very idea of it,” the younger teen commented from where he was perched on top of the rather large screen that was the bat-computer. “I mean, that’s just insulting to laugh like that. Or very flattering and means you’re doing a good job keeping your identity a secret. Ya know, minus that little camera incident.”

Blue eyes looked up and glared at the other teen. “Thank you, Robin. That’s very helpful.”

A grin momentarily crossed the neo-Boy Wonder’s face at the sarcastic response. “I’m here to help.”

“You shouldn’t be on the computer,” came a far more gruff sounding voice from further back in the dark of the cave. The old man was studying something under the microscope. “Get down.”

“Aww, party pooper, I’m just testing the depth perception of the cowl,” Robin said pointing to the black and dark green tech-infused fabric that wrapped around his head and hid every facet of his face from view. “You’re tiny right now, by the way. And now you’re huge. And now,” Robin cut off abruptly at the glare he received before continuing a moment later, “…I’m getting down.”

“Good idea.”

Robin jumped down; pushing himself off far enough to clear all of the computers as well as the chair the younger bat was sitting in. He landed a bit heavier than some but lighter than others before he straightened and spun on his heel to look up at the mass of files on the computer screen. “Whatcha workin’ on?”

“Reading some old files,” Terry replied. “Still trying to catch up on what all is in here.” Robin blinked and turned to look back at the glass cases full of artifacts from the original rogues. Things were forever getting in the way of the new bat’s history lessons and catching up on all of the old cases. There were so many years of information built up to go through. Lifetimes of it. “Shouldn’t you be doing homework, twip?” Terry asked as his younger partner came over to peer over his shoulder.

“Unlike you, I get that done before I bother coming down here,” Robin responded before draping himself over the older teen’s shoulders. “Saves on headaches.”

“I’ll bet. I swear, they do not give out homework evenly anymore,” Terry grumbled.

Robin grinned and reached up to pull the skintight cowl off his head. Apart from the dark green strip across the reflective eye sockets that mimicked the legendary domino masks of the previous Robins, the cowl was just as black as Batman's. “I think you’d be surprised. You’re just all upset ‘cause you’re failing half your classes,” the boy said as he ran a hand through his hair, tussling the rusty brown locks so that they were no longer plastered to his head. “Jeeze, it feels like I’m vacuumed sealed in this thing.”

“It is pretty tight,” Terry agreed absently.

“We don’t wear it for comfort. It has to be kept tight to reduce wind friction,” the eldest bat said. “You’ll get used to it. Now, aren’t you two supposed to be on patrol?” Bruce asked, looking up from his microscope and giving the new dynamic duo a stern gaze.

Unsurprisingly, Batman and Robin were quickly vacating the cave and prowling the streets of Gotham. Amazing how quickly teens could move when properly motivated by a scary old man. Even still, hours passed and the night was surprisingly uneventful. A few purse snatchers and some thugs but not the chaos that the two of them had been anticipating. There had been a string of robberies lately that they were still trying to bust.

“These upgraded optics are so schway,” Robin's excited voice said from behind a gargoyle. “I can see almost to the docks. That’s miles away. I can still zoom in enough to read that sign on the fence… Bird’s Eye View to, like, a zillion and a half.”

“Well, that’s what you get when you spend thousands of dollars to get top of the line stuff,” Batman commented from a slightly higher perch on the skyscraper.

There was a brief chuckle. “Are you jealous that my cowl is more expensive than yours?” Robin asked in a distinctly teasing tone.

There was a snort. “Keep dreaming, kid.”

That only drew more low laughter. “I think you are.” This time his voice was almost sing-songy in its cadence.

Terry shook his head and, despite himself, was glad to hear the thirteen-year-old joking around. When he'd first come across the little twip, he'd been serious and hardened by Gotham to the point that he acted more like the grouchy old man in the cave than just the little brat he was. Terry had been out trying to stop a gang of street kids that were robbing everything that moved -and a lot that didn't- in the Narrows.

To Terry's immense surprise, the kids had all been a lot younger than he'd been expecting and followed the lead of a tagger who seemed to get his spray paint all over the most unlikely places. Terry had tracked the kid down and tried to talk some sense into him, but the twip hadn't listened. The leader -that Terry later learned was named Peter- had run off after spraying some very obnoxious yellow paint in the Batman's face. Bruce had been less than happy, and Terry had spent three hours getting the stuff off the suit.

When Terry had finally tracked the street kid down again a few nights later, he found that the kid had ended up crossing the wrong crime family. Terry got him out of the situation although not unscathed. Terry had felt horrible about not getting there in time to spare Peter all of what that gang had in store for him and offered help. He _hadn't_ expected Peter to interpret 'help' as 'become Robin,' but Terry had been unable to say no.

Again, Bruce had not been happy, but strangely relented for some reason after meeting the kid. Terry had thought about pointing out to the old man that he'd managed to get a Robin suit made up in far too little time for not having any idea that there would be a Robin, but he valued his life too much to actually do it. That was almost six months ago now, and Robin was catching on to things shockingly fast.

"God, I think I'm in love with these optics," Robin continued to gush.

“Focus, Robin. There’s bound to be another tech robbery tonight,” the older cowled crusader said as he peered out across Gotham. “This guy hasn’t missed a night yet.”

“You only know that because GranBats told you,” came the offhanded reply.

_“Having fun out there?”_

“Oh, speak of the devil…” Robin muttered even as Batman gave a quick update of the utter wonderment and enthralling adventure their night had been so far, which was followed up immediately with the yawn that the lack of all those things caused. Robin chuckled some. “Tired, Bats?”

Robin got a glare for that, but he didn’t care. “I don’t know how you’re _not_. We’ve been out here for hours already,” Batman grumbled. “And I have that test in math tomorrow too…”

“I’m addicted to energy drinks,” Robin replied easily. “You should try it. Slightly better for your body than methamphetamines. By, like, a fraction of a percent.”

“Long as it’s not Venom you should be good,” Batman replied.

Robin laughed a little at that. “Nah, if I get that brawny I’d bust my suit. Whoa, hold up.”

Batman’s head instantly turned to the smaller form below him. “What is it?”

Robin narrowed his eyes and pointed to the tech building that they’d been watching while they paused for a break in their patrol. “I’m seeing something in there. Massive hotspot. But my optics aren’t picking up any rads,” Robin supplied.

“So, not Blight then,” Batman said as he put a hand to his own cowl to adjust his optics to try and spot what had caught Robin’s attention. Unfortunately, his cowl was indeed not quite as advanced as Robin’s since it was older and less specialized and he couldn’t quite make out the sort of information that the younger could. Didn’t mean he didn’t still try, though. 

“No, definitely not Glowstick,” Robin agreed. “I’m… not really sure who it is…” he said after several moments. “The shadow on the wall that I can see isn’t like anyone’s profile we’ve run across before.”

Batman straightened to his full height. “Well then, let’s go introduce ourselves,” he said before leaping off the side of the building. Red wings expanded as he crossed the open air between the buildings. Robin was just a step behind him, his own suit forming wing-like membranes in a bright yellow color within instants of leaping off the Gargoyle’s head.

The two of them landed on a window ledge right beside a large melted hole. “Huh… not the usual way to get into a building,” Batman said as he examined the glass for a moment. “Any of the other robberies have their windows melted?” he asked, turning to look at the shorter figure.

Robin shook his head. “No, this is a new thing. But the tech company last week had a new prototype laser stolen that could probably have done this.”

“Looks like someone found a use for it.”

“Don’t they always?”

The two masked teens carefully stepped in through the melted hole and into the building. _“Be careful in there. If the thief is using that laser, it could be strong enough to burn the fabric of your suits. Which means it could burn you as well.”_

“Yeah, I’m not looking to add burns to my collection,” Robin muttered as he looked around carefully. “Can we skip the burn section of Hero U?”

The two heroes sneaked through the offices towards where they could hear several large crashes of someone rummaging around. Robin stayed low as they reached to door into the next room. Both of them peered around the corner to look inside the room. A man with a bright yellow suit and what was apparently a self-made jetpack on his back was rummaging around through several cabinets that had their locks melted off. “Where is it?” The man demanded. His voice was distorted from the helmet he was wearing. It was a sleek oval design except for two bulging bug-eye lenses.

The two teens exchanged a look before moving into the room. “You know, most people go to the lost and found if they can’t find something,” Batman drawled from the doorway.

The thief whipped around quickly. “Batman,” he nearly snarled as soon as he spotted the masked vigilante.

“And you are?” Batman asked, sounding very unimpressed.

“Firefly,” the man said holding up a hand that had a laser attached to his wrist.

“Pretty sure he’s supposed to be dead,” Robin commented from where he was crouched on top of a bank of computers. “Guess that makes him: Zombeetle.”

The man in the mask growled some and pointed the laser at the younger boy. Robin jumped off the computers just before the laser fired. The yellow beam slammed into the machines and caused them to explode violently. “Do you have to mess with the villains?” Batman asked as Robin rolled and straightened to stand beside him.

“It’s the energy drinks,” Robin said before they both dove out of the way to avoid another beam of high-temperature energy. “Besides, you do it too,” he added as he slid across the floor to take cover behind a filing cabinet.

_“You should both be more serious. This isn’t a game.”_

“We’re serious,” Robin said as he fired a birdarang around the corner at the masked villain. “Can’t you hear us being serious?” The projectile exploded loudly when the laser from Firefly’s wrist slammed into it in midair.

“Maybe he’d believe that more if you weren’t giving all the villains new nicknames,” Batman said before lunging at the laser-wielding thief. The laser fired off in a random direction as the two masked men tumbled to the ground. Robin ducked down low as the laser nearly took his head off.

“Whoa, careful there, Bats. That thing’s got a hair trigger on it,” Robin said as he turned to look at the mark on the wall where the laser had hit. He cringed at the scorch mark on the metal. “Man, that woulda been bad…”

There was a grunt of pain and Robin turned just in time to see a black figure come flying at him. He barely had a chance to try and duck before he was hit and both teens were taken to the ground. “See ya, Bats,” Firefly said before running past where they’d landed in a heap on the floor. As the two of them tried to get untangled, Batman reached for a compartment of his suit. He quickly threw the object at the fleeing villain. Firefly tripped up instantly as the thick cables from the bola wound around his legs. He hit the ground with a thud as Batman and Robin managed to get to their own feet.

Suddenly, Firefly threw a small yellow sphere into the air. “Get down!”

There was a huge flash. When the light dissipated Firefly was gone, and there was a newly melted hole in the nearby window. “Lovely,” Robin muttered, kicking a broken coffee mug across the floor.

“I thought for sure that was going to be more than a flash grenade…” Batman muttered.

“I guess every once and a while a villain has to have self-preservation instincts too,” Robin mused aloud. “What was he after in here anyway?”

“Don’t know. But doesn’t sound like he found it.”

Robin put his hands on his hips as he looked around at the trashed office. “Does that mean we get half a point?”

“Doubt it, let’s go. Maybe your cowl can pick up his trail.”

“I’ll try,” Robin agreed before they hurried over to the window. Robin put two fingers to the side of his cowl and narrowed his eyes. After a minute he lowered his hand. “I can see a heat trail, but there’s four extra, and they all are dissipating too fast to figure out which one was actually him and which were decoys.”

_“He’ll be back. He didn’t get whatever it is he wanted from that building.”_

“Oh, yay.”

“I guess we know where we’re going to be tomorrow night…” Batman muttered.

Robin snickered. “If someone doesn’t get grounded for failing another math test.”

“Shut it, twip.”

"Nah, don't think I will," Robin said as he jumped. Batman frowned but followed since there wasn't much else to do in the ruined office building. There would be no way of knowing what it was Firefly was after at this point in the case.

The duo continued with their patrol with a special interest in seeing if their newest enemy could be spotted again. The likelihood was small, but Bruce insisted on being thorough. They ended up sidetracked by a few muggings and break-ins but nothing out of the ordinary. Other than the tech robberies, things were pretty quiet in Gotham lately. It made Terry edgy since things rarely stayed quiet in Gotham for long.

Batman and Robin were just heading back to the cave to make their final report of the night when suddenly Robin landed on a roof. "Uh... that's weird," the younger teen said. Batman landed a moment later with a little confusion. He didn't get a chance to ask though as Robin nodded into the distance. "Someone is flying this way."

"Someone?" Batman echoed and turned to face the proper direction.

"Uh huh," Robin said. A moment later he huffed and folded his arms across his chest. "Oh great. It's Man of Slightly Rusty Steel," he muttered.

Terry managed to not laugh, but only just, even as he too spotted the aging Superman fly into range. He could hear Bruce's displeasure through the earpiece. Why on Earth would Superman being showing up in Gotham? The other hero probably had heard Robin but made no comment even after he landed in front of the duo. "Batman," he greeted.

"Superman. What are you doing in Gotham? Lost?" Terry asked. It wasn't as if Bruce's rules had ever really changed. No powers in Gotham. Especially not to the level of Superman.

"I heard you had a new sidekick," Superman said glancing at the shorter figure. Clark had to admit he was slightly disappointed. He had thought that this Batman would be different from Bruce and not take on a kid to fight crime. Clark had always had more than a few reservations about the idea, but he had to admit that this was an opportunity. The newest in the long line of Robins folded his arms over his chest, partially obscuring the stylized red bird emblazoned across most of his chest. A bright yellow R with green edging was on the boy's belt, and there were a few patches of green on Robin's hands. Other than those spots though everything was pitch black like Batman's suit. Overall a much darker costume than the other Robins, Clark thought, but then Gotham was even darker than back then too. Clark cleared his throat some. "All the other Robins joined the Young Justice team. We just wanted to know if you were planning on continuing that?"

Robin tilted his head to the side before looking at Batman. "Hadn't thought about it," Terry said honestly. Terry himself was still learning after all, but he wasn't about to admit that to Superman. Bruce was staying unusually silent over the comms and Terry had to wonder if that was because he didn't want Clark to know they were still constantly in contact with one another.

"Shouldn't that be _my_ decision?" Robin asked in annoyance.

"Well, of course, you'll have a say," Clark said quickly. "But we wouldn't dream of including you without Batman's approval."

Terry almost laughed at the very annoyed look that still somehow managed to be evident on Robin's entirely covered face. "He's not the boss of me," Robin snapped.

"We'll let you know," Terry said before Superman could stick his foot deeper into his mouth. "Until then, you should get going."

Superman frowned. He had been hoping for a more direct answer. "Well, Bruce knows that the Zeta tubes are still intact and probably has the codes to reactivate the Gotham ones. When you decide just stop by the watchtower. Things have changed a bit since the last time Bruce was involved."

"I'll bet," Terry muttered. That had to have been at least thirty-some years ago at this point after all. Bruce had retired for good twenty years ago and had broken off contact with the rest of the league even before that. Superman still didn't look happy but left with only a little more prodding.

Once he was gone, Terry glanced over at Robin. "You don't want to do it?" he asked.

Robin scoffed. "What could I possibly have in common with any of them? I doubt any of them were ever homeless in one of the roughest cities in the world."

Batman supposed that Robin had a point, but he also knew that the kid missed the rest of his gang that had, by this point, all been adopted out to homes and spread to the wind. "It's late. Let's get back before the sun rises for once." Terry wasn't sure why Bruce was still so quiet over the comm system.

"God, you sound so old when you say things like that," Robin said before running and jumping off the building. The jets in his boots came on, and the kid was soaring in the direction of the cave. Batman sighed but followed. Bruce really shouldn't have given the kid rocket boots. He'd been hard enough to keep track of without them.


	2. What's pry-vaaac-ie?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin contemplates and Investigates like the nosey bird he is

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm taking all sorts of canon and throwing it into a blender regardless of time line or retconning to use what I want. If I wanna use a new version of obscure characters then I will. I'm more interested in have a fun story this time than complying with current canon. (Plus I haven't read all the BBeyond comics to refer to constantly)

Robin was sitting on the edge of one building with a leg dangling off the side looking as if there was absolutely nothing that was going on. In truth, Terry had told him to wait as he investigated a robbery a few streets over. Considering Robin had spotted a running car in the alley down below just suspiciously sitting there without lights on, he figured it was the get away vehicle and was watching it.

"I gotta say... it's very odd seeing you and Batman without capes."

Robin jumped to his feet turned quickly to see a man standing on the roof with greying hair heavily streaked through black and a thick leather jacket obscuring a well muscled frame. He was wearing sunglasses despite the fact that it was late at night. Robin quickly got to his feet. "Capes get in the way," Robin said. His first instinct was to pull out a weapon but something was familiar about the man. Something in the way he held himself, Robin thought. That, the fact he'd managed to surprise Robin on a roof, and the unnecessary sunglasses all told him that attacking might be unwise.

"Hey, no arguments here," the man said with his hands up. "I ended up ditching mine when I changed names too."

Robin narrowed his eyes and let his brain quickly rifle through facts and did some quick mental math. He relaxed his posture when he came to what he figured was the most likely explanation. "Hey, RP... I definitely wasn't expecting to see you around."

The man's smile widened and he reached up to take his sunglasses off, revealing one blue eye and a patch over where the other should be. The current Robin didn't seem in the least disturbed by the missing eye. "That stands for Robin Prime, I'm guessing? Pretty good guess, kid."

"I am a provable genius," Robin said as he glanced back down at the car in the alley below. "How'd _you know_ what I was calling you?" Even Terry, who was getting to be very good at following Peter's mental jumps, sometimes missed things like the random nicknames, strange titles, and abbreviations that he used without preamble.

"I had a habit of disrespecting the English language too," the First Robin answered as he replaced his sunglasses. "I heard that the team sent you an invite... thought I'd drop by and ask you if you were going to do that. As you might imagine, I have a vested interest in what anyone using the Robin name does."

"You were the one that picked it," Peter said in a sort of agreement. "But why should it matter if I join their club? Bats isn't a member of the league. Not really." He helped on very rare occasion but mostly Batman stayed in Gotham. Robin wasn't terribly inclined to go wandering off either.

"Batman is not Robin," the older hero said.

Robin crossed his arms. "Fact," he said dryly. "And?"

"And... being part of the team is something I came to treasure. Being stuck in Gotham all the time can be... soul crushing, honestly," he said. "Plus, you won't be stuck in the position I was. Where I could only work with Batman and nobody else. It took me several years to break some bad habits I developed as Batman's partner. If you want my honest opinion-"

"I feel like I'm going to get it no matter what."

"-being on the Team was probably the best thing for me," the older hero finished despite the interruption.

Before the newest boy wonder could respond to that there was a ruckus down in the alley below. Both heroes looked down to see several terrified looking men scrambling into the car. Robin sighed and pulled a holographic screen up from a dark green patch on his arm. With a few quick key strokes the car suddenly turned off and all the locks slammed into place, trapping the robbers inside. "You hacked the car," the first Robin said.

"Easier than chasing them all over Gotham," the thirteen year old replied. A dark figure glided over from across the street before landing nearby. "Hey, Bats," Robin greeted without looking up. "Got you a present."

Batman eyed the unfamiliar man standing on the roof with them before turning to Robin. "You didn't even gift wrap it."

"I couldn't find enough Batman themed paper," Robin said casually. "I was very disappointed in Gotham dollar stores to not have enough to wrap up one measly car."

The Prime Robin chuckled a little. "At least you have something going for you that I never did," he said.

"What's that?" Peter asked.

"A Batman that'll crack a joke."

_"It's a serious job, something all of you seem to forget."_

"GranBats takes offense to your observation," Robin informed pointing to his ear.

_"I never said that."_

"He says you're being very mean to a poor old man."

_"Peter..."_ the original cowled crusader growled over the radio.

The retired Robin laughed, practically cackling in amusement, "Oh, I just bet that is exactly what he's saying. That sounds _just like_ Bruce." The old man back in the cave growled out some obscure threat about 'when they got back' but Robin didn't take him seriously. Even if the old man did try something he was _pretty_ sure he was fast enough to get out of the way of harm. "Seriously though... I would definitely consider joining the Team. Quite a few members recently moved up to the League -including Aquagirl and Warhawk- so they're pretty excited about the prospect of filling those spots, I hear."

Robin frowned even as he typed a few commands into the holographic keyboard. The car down below suddenly turned on and then started moving. "I'll think about it," he said as the car, filled with now screaming criminals, headed off to the police station. "I love that they put computers in everything."

"They are going to be so confused..." Batman said as he watched the car disappear down the street.

The first Robin chuckled again. "You two must drive the old man up the wall."

"We do our best," Peter said before an alert came over their comms. Peter brought up his computer to quickly look at where it was coming from. "Foxtecha has a break in. Probably that guy from a few nights ago."

"Let's go then," Batman said. Robin nodded and the pair of them left, not even bothering to say goodbye to the first Robin as they did so.

The older man watched them go and shook his head. "Yeah... they drive him crazy, I can tell," he said to himself as the young heroes disappeared. He couldn't help but be incredibly fond of them already.

When they arrived at Foxtecha, the window had been melted but there was no other sign of Firefly. Considering he had broken into one of the more distant warehouses from where Batman and Robin had been, it wasn't too surprising that he'd been long gone when they showed up. The criminal did have a jetpack to make quick exits, after all. Robin and Batman investigated the scene as much as they could before the police showed up and then headed back to the cave to go over what they did know. Other than the laser now being used as a weapon there was no hint as to what Firefly was up to.

Almost the second that they had arrived in the cave Bruce had all but bodily dragged Terry upstairs. The idiot had 'forgotten' to eat again and Bruce was going to force him to actually have a meal of something. Peter had just shaken his head and gone to his computer terminal. It was a miracle that Terry had lived to his late teens with how bad he was at just taking care of himself.

Robin anticipated that the pair would be gone for about half an hour so he got busy with other things. Robin leaned back in his chair and studied the different files in front of him that he most definitely didn't acquire by any underhanded or illegal means. Hacking into the Justice League's very secure mainframe to see who was in an even more secure and secret team would have been _dishonest_ of him. "Where did you get those?" Max asked as she leaned over his shoulder.

"Found 'em layin' around."

"Laying around, huh?"

"Yep. Layin' around for just anybody to come across," Robin said without looking away from the file of 'Kid Eternity' that he was reading. "Very irresponsible of them."

"You know... most people wouldn't consider locked away in a highly encrypted sever as being 'laying around for anybody to come across,' Peter," she said although she was reading up on the blonde girl in front of her, as well. Apparently she had some sort of magic or something. The file didn't go into the best of details.

Peter snorted and scrolled through the page. "They want to invite me onto their team they'd best get used to it," he said. "I've got a reputation as a Robin to maintain, you know."

"I'm going to bet that they would be perfectly happy for you to not maintain that particular part of the Robin reputation," Max said. "Besides computer hackery is supposed to be my job."

"Yeah, but you would have said no, so..." Peter left off there and pulled up a different file. This one was titled 'Impulse' and showed a kid with yellow goggles on. "Huh... wonder how he came up with 'Impulse' as a name."

"Better than Kid Whatever or Blah Blah Boy like half the sidekicks use," Max pointed out as she pulled a chair closer to sit down and read.

Peter glanced over at her briefly. "I thought you were all disapproving about this," he pointed out.

"I'm supervising," she said. "Besides... I'm not going to let just anyone around my family." Peter paused in his typing for a moment and looked at Max again. She raised an eyebrow. "What's with the look? Don't tell me you don't get where I'm coming from Mr. Gang-Leader."

"... No, I get it," Peter said, although he still looked surprised. "I just didn't realize that you thought of me that way, Max."

"Nobody's allowed to pick on you but me and Terry," Max said. 

Peter smiled a little. "I feel so loved," he said in an overly emotional saccharine voice. Max gave the younger teen a shove. "I have to admit... I am a bit intrigued," Robin said as he turned back to the screen. "But I don't know if I want to leave you and Terry to deal with the old man and Gotham without me."

"We were dealing with both of them without you for quite a while," Max pointed out. "Besides it won't be all the time. The city won't be burned down while you're gone. I promise."

Peter frowned at the screen. "I've never left Gotham before... Not even on one of those field trips for school since my Grandfather is a complete ass and never signs any permission forms."

"Definitely an opportunity then," Max said with a smile.

Peter leaned further back and propped his feet up onto the desk. "You really think so?"

"No, just trying to get rid of you so me and Terry can talk about you behind your back," Max told him. Peter snorted and typed a few more commands into the computer to switch screens to yet another member of the Team. This one was a boy with blonde hair half of which was braided and the other left in a wild spiky style that was tinted a seafoam green at the ends. 

"That's because you were raised right. See I was raised like crap. That's why I talk about people to their faces," Peter said as he read over the other teen's powers. He was an Altantean so, of course, water based powers and above average physical prowess. "This one looks a lot like Aquagirl," he observed although the teen didn't use 'Aqua' anything as a name.

"Well, most of the Aquas are related aren't they?" Max asked.

"Uh huh," Robin agreed absently. "Royal family of Atlantis usually."

"Maybe he's her younger brother or something," Max guessed.

"Yeah maybe," Robin said as he pulled up another file. He skimmed over it and then let out an 'ah' sound. "That explains how he found out..." he muttered.

"How who found out what?" Max asked.

"RP... he knew that I was offered a place on the Team even though he's very much retired. This here says that Nightstar is the leader of said Team," Robin said gesturing at the screen. "Family sharing, I guess."

"They're related?" Max asked in surprise. Robin nodded. "How do you know that?" she demanded.

Robin looked up at her innocently. "Why don't you?"

Max rolled her eyes and got up from her seat. "Maybe because I have better things to do than invading other people's privacy unless they're doing something dangerous."

"Crime fighting is dangerous," Robin pointed out.

"Dangerous to the rest of the world not just personally," Max corrected. "I don't go finding out private information on other heroes just for kicks."

Robin frowned. "What is this 'privacy' you keep mentioning?" he asked, deliberately over enunciating the word. "It sounds boring."

"Any leads on what Firefly is up to?" a gruff voice demanded suddenly from the top of the stairs.

Robin jumped and straightened in his chair in the same motion. "Uh, yeah, working on it!" he said quickly as he punched in a few keystrokes so that the screens changed. "Doing a search now, GranBats." Max chuckled a little and pulled a chair up to sit at her own terminal. "Shut up, Oracle," Robin grumbled.


	3. Meeting the Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin goes and meets the team and it seems speedsters and Robins just naturally get along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the end of this chapter I have posted a roster of the revealed members of BBeyond Time Young Justice. Due to the time jump involved I've had to be a little creative with who is currently involved. I've got a few what I'm calling technical OCs that are say grandchildren or children of real characters that I'm using purely because the actual people I'd want to use would be too old. I've Identified these characters for you and also the characters I've just pure made up and the ones that exist but I've revamped. And don't worry, not all of the people listed will be going back in time when we come to that.

"I'd like to try it." 

Bruce didn't even look up from his microscope where he was studying trace amounts of the fuel Firefly had been using for his jetpack, which had been found and collected from the latest crime scene. He just slid a piece of paper over without even asking for context to the out of the blue statement. "The Zeta access codes. Don't lose them."

"Please, this is me we're talking about," Peter said dismissively as he picked up the sheet of paper. He glanced at the code for a moment and then turned to Bruce. "Why did you have this ready for me?"

"This is me we're talking about," Bruce echoed.

Peter snorted. "And people say you don't have a sense of humor."

"They're right," Bruce said.

"Yeah, okay, I believe you," Peter said before heading over to the cave entrance.

"Take Ace with you," Bruce said suddenly.

Peter paused and turned on his heel. "What?"

"Terry is on patrol so take Ace with you," Bruce repeated, finally looking up from his microscope. The dog in question lifted his head from where he was curled up on a cushion nearby. 

"Is it even safe for Bat-Hound to take the Zeta tubes?" Robin asked curiously. He had read about the odd form of transportation, but there hadn't been a whole lot of information about where it had come from, and Robin wasn't naive enough to assume that it came from somewhere that automatically planned for dogs to be using it.

"The Zetas have been used to transport animals, aliens, and even beings with unstable genetic codes. He'll be fine," Bruce said. "You're not going there alone."

Robin cocked his hip and folded his arms across his chest. "Is this another 'Robins always get into trouble' thing?"

"Yes," Bruce answered instantly. "And you do."

Robin thought about that for a moment and debated mentally if he should argue the point. Considering he'd been openly on the job for six months and had already been targeted twice by criminals as a means of leverage, he thought better of doing so. "Come on, Ace," he said after a minute. "We're off on an adventure!" Ace barked twice and jumped up to trot along beside Robin. Luckily, Robin truly did enjoy going out with Ace, so it wasn't a hardship on him to bring the hound with him. He had always wanted a dog, but his actual biological grandfather wouldn't allow pets. Peter really should run away again, but Peter'd promised Bruce and Terry he wouldn't do that again on pain of no longer being Robin and that wasn't something Peter was willing to give up. Being Robin was really the only thing he looked forward to on a day to day basis.

Because Ace was travelling with him, Robin had to take a secondary mode of transport to where any Zeta tube was. Robin usually wasn't allowed to take the batmobile anywhere since he didn't actually have any sort of license, but he wasn't about to ask Ace to balance on the back of the cycle.

After heading across town to a slightly upper-middle-class neighborhood where a Zeta tube was located, Robin parked in a seemingly abandoned shed that was far sturdier than it looked. After parking, the ceiling folded back into place leaving no hint as to what was actually inside. Ace jumped out and sniffed around the small building as Robin quickly locked the Batmobile down. The Zeta tube was located in the corner of the shed and disguised to look like a broken bathroom.

Robin let Ace continue to explore the building even as he crouched down beside the 'bathroom' and pried off a water-stained panel. Underneath the bland bit of wall was a highly complex series of circuits and computer components. Robin brought up the computer from his suit and quickly started working. The system hadn't been kept up to date and was locked down, so it took a moment get the Zeta tube working again. Loading in his and Ace's genetic data into the locks took a little more doing, but he was capable.

"Robin: B115 Accepted. Bat-Hound: C10 Accepted."

"Schway," Robin said as he got to his feet and put away his computer before replacing the panel. "Let's go, Ace." Ace barked and came bounding over from where he had been sticking his head into some old tires that had rotted through probably decades ago.

Robin went over to the door and then paused. He tilted his head thoughtfully as he studied the tube. "Well... I feel like I need to make an entrance, Ace. Shall I?" Ace barked again, and Robin nodded as if he understood. Robin reached down to the emblem of his belt and rotated the yellow outer ring. His suit went into camouflage mode and then he grabbed Ace's collar to guide them both into the stall.

The light _hurt_ it was so bright. The lenses of his cowl were always constantly working to give him a huge spectrum of visual scans and data and the Zeta tubes gave off _a lot_ of information. Robin couldn't help but hiss a little and shut his eyes although that didn't really help. Robin heard the same robotic voice from before call out their arrival even as he let Ace go. The dog bound forward barking loudly as Robin, still cloaked, followed at a slightly more sedate pace, his head still aching from way too much data flow. He'd have to be better prepared in the future.

Robin watched with no small amount of amusement as several people showed up and then looked entirely too confused. Ace stopped in front of the various heroes that had shown up, barred his teeth, and growled at them. "Whoa, easy there, Fido," the no longer spritely Static said holding his hands up.

"Okay, I guess that explains the 'Bat-Hound' thing but anyone else wondering where the 'Robin' of that announcement is?" The kid that the files identified as Impulse asked as he looked around.

Ace growled some more and took a single step forward. "Easy there, Bat-Hound... maybe a better name for you is Kujo..." the green-eyed Warhawk grumbled with his arms crossed.

Robin, who by this time had climbed up to perch on top of the doorway behind them, turned off the cloaking. "His name's Ace." The heroes all whipped around and looked for the source of the voice. They spotted Robin practically lounging on the door almost immediately, and the boy waved. "Hi. Be nice, Ace." The dog growled for another second before sulkily walking off to investigate a computer terminal.

"How did..?"

"We were here almost instantly. How did you sneak past us?"

"How did we not hear you?"

Robin grinned and jumped down. "I'm Robin. Sorta in the job description to do stuff like that." He grunted a little as Impulse crossed the distance between them in about half a second and flung an arm around Robin's neck.

"I like you already," Impulse declared.

"Schway..." Robin said. "But was the speed necessary?" he asked rubbing where their two bodies had collided a little harder than he'd like. He was naturally a little on the bony side, and his hip had not appreciated the impact of Impulse's in the least.

"He's a speedster, pretty sure it's impossible for him to move anything less than top speed at all times," a new voice said from behind them.

Robin craned his head back to see who it was. She was tall with long black hair and entirely green eyes. "Nightstar, I presume?" Robin said.

She nodded and Superman, who was walking beside her, frowned a little. "Where's Batman? I would have thought he'd come with you..." Superman said. Just behind him was another, younger version of him, wearing a very pronounced scowl. He looked about as happy as Bruce always did.

"Um, that's what he's for," Robin said jerking a thumb in the direction of Ace. The large black dog growled instantly from where he was standing propped up on the computer and looking very ready to spring into action. "Easy boy. No biting. You'll probably break your teeth and won't that be an expensive vet bill..."

If the other superheroes didn't know any better, they would have sworn the dog began to pout as he hopped down to wander over to a large silver trashcan in the corner. Robin shrugged a little and turned back to the others. "Anyway, I'm not saying I'll stick with your offer. Seems a little outta my usual gig but I've decided to give this team thing a shot. For prosperity and the safety of kittens and Christmas or whatever."

"Well then you should meet the others," Nightstar said. "Most of Alpha Team are here, I think... except for Kid Eternity. She's off with Doctor Fate doing something or another."

"Oh, goodie," Robin said even as Impulse practically dragged him along. "Ace. Come on, boy!" he called. The dog instantly abandoned the trashcan to run to where Robin was being dragged. The pure black hound pushed himself bodily between Robin and Impulse.

Impulse looked mildly surprised and dropped Robin's arm. "Protective," he observed as Ace kept perfect pace beside Robin.

The neo-boy wonder nodded. "Yeah... 'He's a guard dog, not a pet,' or so I've heard about a dozen times," Robin said with a mockingly severe tone. A few members of the group -the Supers, and Static mostly- exchanged a couple looks. "Yeah. He's still a grumpy GranBat," Robin answered the unspoken question.

"He... lets you call him that?" Superman the Younger asked.

"Define lets," Robin prompted.

"The third person present form of the word let, which means not prevent or forbid; allow," the younger Super answered automatically.

Robin glanced back for a moment and then shrugged. "That was kind of rhetorical but okay how about we switch that up to 'can not stop because I do not take his threats of bodily harm seriously' and yeah, he 'lets me' call him that."

The group of them reached a sizeable common room type area arranged with several large couches and armchairs, a massive television mounted on the wall, a pool table, and a few tables. Through a broad pass-through in the far wall, Robin could make out some features of an industrial kitchen. Several teens were hanging out in the common room that all looked up from where they had been whispering when the group entered. Robin quickly recalled the information from the various files he had 'acquired' and matched them to the appropriate people. Only two people were missing: the aforementioned Kid Eternity and the second Offspring.

The blonde Altantian had quite clearly recently gotten out of water of some sort since his hair was damp, but he was dressed in a black and red outfit that looked like some cross between regular clothes and a wetsuit although he was missing shoes. Beside him was a black girl with hair nearly buzzed it was so short with a definite green arrow vibe to her outfit. Beside them was a boy that looked shockingly like the two supers standing just behind Robin. The new Superboy, Red Tide and Arrowette, Robin's brain supplied immediately. Another teen in a very blue and white outfit was sitting in the corner reading some thick book and only briefly glanced up from his reading before going back to it. He was instantly identifiable by the blue insignia on his chest as the part-time member: Blue Lantern -the first of that Corp to be from Earth and off planet dealing with intergalactic diplomacy more often than not. Robin was a little surprised that Blue Lantern was even there, seeing how Green Lantern was off world.

Arrowette stepped forward just as a small blindingly red monkey jumped down from somewhere in the rafters. Ace took exception and growled at the animal even as it shifted into a girl in her late teens or early twenties with wild thick curly black hair and skin that looked like she had been out in the sun without proper protection for about twelve hours. She was wearing a long-sleeved leotard in purple and black much like the one her father used to wear. "Easy, Ace. You've seen weirder," Robin commented. Robin looked over at Changeling and shrugged. "Sorry."

"It's fine. I'm sort of used to it... If I change into a dog he'll get used to me pretty fast," the daughter of Beastboy said before doing just that. Ace abruptly stopped growling as the floppy-eared bloodhound came over. Ace still acted wary but the fur of his scruff slowly lowered.

"I didn't think you'd be joining," Arrowette said as Ace continued to get used to the shape-shifting teenager.

Robin shrugged. "Still might not be. We'll see how it works out," he answered. Ace obviously decided that Changeling wasn't a threat any longer and wandered off to go jump onto one of the couches as if he owned it. Robin thought it best to not challenge the dog owned by Batman.

Nightstar stepped forward as Changeling shifted back to her human form. The leader went through introductions even though Robin already knew each of the members of the team. "Where's Lenny?" she asked while looking around.

"No idea. He'd said he'd be by today, but I haven't seen him," Changeling informed. "Then again this is Lenny we're talking about so who knows where the heck he is."

Impulse practically dragged Robin further into the room as Superman the Elder took Nightstar and his clone off to the side to have a chat. Static said something about needing to head out and headed back to the Zeta tubes with Warhawk. The computer voice echoed out Static's designation a few moments later. Robin thought about listening in on the conversation going on by the door but decided he didn't much care, and so allowed himself to be manhandled over to the couches. "So if you still may not be joining what made you come here in the first place?" Impulse asked as Robin got comfortable on the couch.

"Boredom," Robin answered. "Between me and Oracle we've got pretty much all of Gotham wired in some way or another so unless it's someone big like Glowstick or Squidzilla or someone most criminals we can snap up pretty fast," he said.

"Glowstick and Squidzilla?" Changeling asked from where she was perched on the back of the couch.

"Oh, well, their actual names are Blight and Inque, but it angers them when I call them names so... there ya go," Robin explained casually. "Bats says I should lay off, but I just can't seem to do that. Then again I don't try that hard either so that might have something to do with it."

Suddenly Impulse was gone and then a second later was back with a massive cold cut in his hands. "Anybody want anything?" he asked just before biting into the sandwich.

"Not all of us are endless pits, Bart," Blue Lantern, or Justin to use his civilian name, said without looking up from what Peter now saw was a heavily worn Bible. "And before you reply remember that it's rude to speak while eating."

Bart swallowed noisily. "Why are you reading that?"

"A school project," Justin replied absently.

"Catholic school sounds terrible," Bart commented before biting into his sandwich again. Justin didn't bother answering and just flipped a page in his bible.

Just then Nightstar came back over although the two Supermen had disappeared, Robin noticed. "So, how long have you been working with Batman?" she asked as she took a seat on the armrest of one chair.

"Officially or are we including the training period?" Robin asked. "If we're talking how long I've been wearing this thing, six months," he added pointing to the red bird on his chest that he had noticed was not wholly uninspired from Nightwing's old get up.

"I guess that explains why we only just heard of you," Impulse said with a smile.

"The new Batman hasn't even been around very long. At least not so obviously as to get his name in papers," Superboy pointed out.

Robin nodded. "GranBats is really determined we keep a 'lower profile' than the past. Which I guess means we'll have to become actual myths or something because I don't know how much further under the radar anyone can be."

"It would probably be safer that way," Nightstar commented. "I've heard a lot of stories."

"Yeah... so have I. Ad nauseam," Robin replied. "So, I know you guys have different teams under your umbrella. Who has the misfortune of being stuck with my loud mouth?"

"I've volunteered to take you under Alpha team," Nightstar answered. "It seemed appropriate."

"She wouldn't let me take you in Beta, more like," Changeling mock whispered. "There's only so long I can argue with her over something. She's a stubborn one, you know."

Robin snorted. "I think that's just par for the bat-course." He knew that he for certain was more than a little stubborn. You had to be when you were dealing with people like Bruce on a daily basis. If you couldn't be at least as stubborn as him, there was no point in even voicing ideas. "So... are we allowed in all of the watchtower?" he asked in his most innocent voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full Roster:
> 
>  **Nightstar** \- Leader of Alpha Team: **Mar'i Grayson** \- _Daughter of Nightwing and Starfire_
> 
>  **Superboy II** \- Senior Member: **Jon Lane-Kent** \- _Son of Superman I and Lois Lane_
> 
>  **Red Tide** : Technically OC- **Arthur Curry III** \- _Grandson of Aquaman_
> 
>  **Arrowette** : New Version of Old Character- **Regina 'Ginny' Hawke**
> 
>  **Impulse: Bart Allen** \- _Grandson of Flash (Bary Allen) and Iris West-Allen_
> 
>  **Blue Lantern** \- Part-Time Member: OC- **Justin Haywood** (I've always loved the concept of Blue Lanterns and feel one would make the perfect sidekick for a Green lantern but they seem sadly under used in the comics, so I had to drop one in this story even if he'll be a minor character.)
> 
>  **Kid Eternity** : New Version of Old Character- **Christopher 'Kit' Freeman** \- time displaced 'Uncle' of Captain Marvel Jr. (Captain Marvel's Foster Brother)(If you noticed Kid Eternity is called she several times but is named Christopher. Since I was revamping the character anyhow I decided to add some nontraditional gender dynamics into it. This won't play a huge role but I thought I'd mention it.) 
> 
> **Robin VII** : OC- **Peter REDACTED**
> 
>  
> 
>  **Changeling** \- Senior Member/Second in Command/Leader of Beta Team: **'Red' Logan** \- _Daughter of Beastboy and Rose Wilson_
> 
> **Offspring II** \- Member of Beta Team: Technically OC- **Lenny McDunnagh** \- _Grandson of Plastic Man_


	4. The First Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to have the whole first mission that the future crew went on contained in it's own chapter and that didn't seem to jive with my brain or something because it took FOREVER to work out what happened properly. So sorry for the delay and anyone thinking this fic was dead... thankfully the news about a third season coming out seems to have gotten my brain in gear again. Or maybe it's the binge watching of YJ again due to it... that is probably more likely. Anyway! Enjoy!

Robin quickly found that the older superheroes didn't have what one might call a sense of humor. True, Peter's sense of humor ran more towards 'trolling,' but it wasn't as if he did anything dangerous. Nightstar had already had three conversations with him about 'boundaries' and Robin had only been working with the team for a week and a half. Robin thought it was hilarious that, after a completely harmless incident involving Impulse and purple paint on the bottom of his shoes, Nightstar actually called Batman. And not GranBats either, whom nobody but a few of the older heroes in the league -primarily Superman- dared ever speak to. Terry had not been happy to get that call since he'd been trying to catch up on his school work. Again. His response to Nightstar's complaint was 'you're the ones that wanted him' followed by the line going dead. Robin was almost impressed by how Bruce-like Terry had managed to be in that moment.

"He makes it sound like I'm a disease," Robin observed. "I think I'm going to feel hurt about that."

"You have to decide how you're going to feel?" Superboy asked incredulously.

Robin shrugged. "Not everything he says is worth getting offended over," he answered. "So, I pick and choose."

"You two have such a weird relationship," Blue Lantern observed.

"We're closer in age than any of you and your counterparts," Robin pointed out.

"Don't you mean mentor?" Superboy asked. That was what most of the sidekicks called the heroes they were attached to.

Robin scoffed. "Mentor's a little misleading in this case. We do still have GranBats to deal with... if anyone's a mentor in our little setup in Gotham, it's him."

Nightstar sighed and turned to the rest of the team. "Alright. Let's get back to training... when Impulse is done cleaning his shoes, he'll rejoin us."

Robin smirked behind Nightstar's back. He had used some of his most aggravating paint from back when he was a tagger. The chances of even Impulse getting it off in anything less than an hour was slim. Terry had spent ages getting it off the batsuit when they first ran into each other. Robin had developed the paint himself to be as permanent as possible. Most people just painted over it in frustration.

Several days after that incident, and after a training session where Robin's lacking hand-to-hand combat skills were tested (fighting was very obviously his major downfall), he headed into the room he had been given while he was visiting the station. Peter didn't keep much in his assigned quarters since it was mostly just a place to crash if something big was going on and to clean up after training. Ace used it more than Peter did. By Bruce's own orders, Robin was not to be on the station without either Bat-Hound or Batman present. Arguing against the old man's paranoia and overprotective habits was a waste of breath, so they just did as he said. Since Terry had no time whatsoever to stop by the station, the job fell to Ace.

Ace looked up from the bed when Peter came in and then dropped his head onto his paws again. "Yeah, I know, nobody worth growling at," Peter said as he pulled off his cowl and headed towards the bathroom. Yet another rule, although this one was Peter's own, was that he never wore casual clothes to the Watchtower. Peter was always in his suit and cowl where his identity was secured -unless of course, he was taking a shower. Peter only just began stripping from his suit when there was a loud buzz at his door. He sighed and went to the intercom on the wall. "Yeah?"

"You up for your first mission with the team?" Nightstar asked.

Robin straightened. From what Nightstar had been saying during their training she didn't want him in the field yet -laughable since he patrolled Gotham regularly- but she seemed adamant. "Really? Sure, I'll be out in a minute." He pulled his suit back on and grabbed his cowl. "Well, Ace. We'll see how this goes, huh?"

Ace barked and jumped down from the bed. He stretched as Robin pulled the cowl back on and carefully made sure all the connections were all properly in line. The sensors that went all through the suit were slightly magnetic so that they rejoined easily, but Robin liked to be sure, so he checked them each time anyway. The original costumes that Batman and Robin wore had been a lot lower tech and so less could go wrong with them, but Peter wouldn't have ever been able to fight crime in them. His acrobatic skills weren't so bad since even before becoming Robin he climbed all over crazy things to put his tags in obnoxious places, but his physical fighting and actual strength definitely were. Before joining Terry and the Batfamily, Peter hadn't had even a moment of martial arts training. If the suit weren't increasing his strength and reflexes, he'd get a heck of a lot more injured than he did.

Robin left his room with Ace trotting along behind him and gave the team a smile. "So, what's up?" he asked.

Nightstar pulled up an image on the large screen in the common area. "This is a warehouse located right outside Star City. We've got a tip that someone is using it for smuggling drugs into the country. We're thinking it might be Venom since a new crop of Slappers have shown up in Star City over the past month. We're to go in, grab Intel and get out again," she informed them. "Since Venom is originally a Gotham thing, we thought this would be a good one to start you on," she added to Robin.

Robin frowned. "Venom isn't easy to come by," he began. "There's only a few people in the world that know the formula and other than those in the bat side of things... they're in no shape to be making venom." Bane wasn't able to do anything anymore he was so debilitated from the drug, and the one person he trusted with the formula was almost worse off after his tangle with Terry.

"Any leads on who is making it then?" Impulse asked.

"Not yet, that's one of the things we'll be looking for," Nightstar answered. She turned to Robin. "Any further information on Venom. We know some from a few encounters with it by the original team, but those files are very barebones. Batman isn't known for sharing, and he was in charge of the team back then, so he probably deliberately kept information out of the files."

"You can say that again," Robin muttered. "Um, let's see, highlights are: highly addictive, adrenaline based, _very_ easy to OD on it... can't be taken as a tablet because it wouldn't enter the bloodstream fast enough to cause the desired reaction. Do you have a sample of these new slappers?"

"Yeah, of course," Nightstar said as she started typing.

Robin moved closer to the screen, and, when the analysis of the chemicals came up, he frowned. "What is it?" Blue Lantern asked, noticing the Boy Wonder's expression even despite the full face cowl.

"That's not Venom," he said. "The chemical composition is all off. Well, I mean, not _all_ off. But, yeah, no, this isn't the same formula. This is not Bane's work."

Robin gestured at the computer, and Nightstar stepped back. The younger hero started typing, and an entirely new compound appeared beside the first. "Please tell me you didn't memorize the chemical compound of Venom..." Impulse said. Robin just glanced over and then went back to the screen where he was typing. "Man... before you came along I was the brainy one..." he said with a sigh.

"Now you're just the one that eats more than all of us combined," Blue Lantern drawled.

"Oh, well that's weird," Robin said before Impulse could do more than open his mouth to respond.

The others came closer. "What is it?" Superboy asked.

Robin pulled up several new compounds up on the screen. "I pulled these known mutagens out of the computer in the Batcave to compare. This one here-" one of the diagrams blew up in size "-uses this same really bizarre ingredient that I didn't immediately recognize."

"And what might that be?" Nightstar asked.

"Praevarazine. It's only ever been used a few times and always by Poison Ivy to grow her giant plants. But there hasn't been a confirmed Poison Ivy sighting in like thirty-five years. She's assumed dead since she didn't strike anyone as the type to retire peacefully," Robin said. "Plus, she wasn't really interested in mutating humans. So, it seems odd that this would be in a drug meant to boost _people's_ aggression."

"Poison Ivy? The plant lady is somehow involved with this?" Blue Lantern asked.

Robin shrugged. "Maybe? I mean, taking into account her probably age and her general dislike of most people, I sorta doubt it, but it's not like it would be unheard of for her to work with others."

"What use is this compound that she used for plants be in a new type of Venom?" Nightstar asked.

"Muscle growth," Robin supplied. "It's like steroids... on steroids..." There was an awkward pause as that repetitive comment absorbed and then Robin slowly nodded a few times. "Yeah..."

"I take back everything I said about you being smart," Impulse said dryly.

"Shut up," Robin replied. "I'm a genius."

"Alright, genius, anything else we should know before we go investigate?" Nightstar asked.

Robin hummed and folded his arms in thought. "Well, even if Ivy isn't involved in this... just the fact that her plant chemical mojo is being used means we should take precautions against airborne toxins. Lots of her chemicals and plants emitted all kinds of different things into the air from pheromones to toxic spores to anaphylaxis-inducing pollen."

"We'll be careful. Everyone be at the jet in fifteen," Nightstar ordered.

"Aren't we down a few people?" Robin asked. Red Tide, Kid Eternity and Arrowette were all not currently on the station.

"Kid Eternity and Arrowette will be joining us there, but Red Tide is in the middle of something in Atlantis and not available. Seeing how we won't be near water, I can't see that being a problem, though," Nightstar replied. "And even if the others don't show up, this shouldn't be a complex enough mission that we'll suffer if they aren't in on the recon so let's go."

"Righto," Robin agreed along with the others.

Fifteen minutes later the Alpha team had Zeta tubed down to a hanger on the planet's surface and then quickly piled into the sleek black stealth jet waiting there. Once they were all buckled into the seats in the cockpit, Nightstar was piloting them out of the hanger and headed towards Star City. "You brought the dog?" Superboy asked as Ace sat down beside Robin.

"Rule 47... Robin must be accompanied on all missions," Robin rattled off in a sarcastic tone. "I've already broken the 'no explosive birdarangs in the cave' rule, I don't need to do another in such quick succession."

"But we're here," Blue Lantern pointed out.

"Yeah, no offense, guys... but you don't really... count," Robin told them. "Least, not to GranBats."

"Not even Nightstar?" Superboy asked in surprise. Their leader was practically an honorary bat, after all, even if she'd never actually done anything in Gotham.

Robin shrugged. "Well, she probably will be, but she's not on the approved list yet so... Bat-Hound it is for now," he explained. Robin managed to not shift uncomfortably at the looks he was getting, but it was a near thing.

"He trusts a dog more than he trusts a bunch of people with a wide array of superpowers?" Lantern asked.

"Well... yeah," Robin said.

There was an awkward moment of silence then Impulse said, "... That's messed up, dude."

"News flash, Batman doesn't like superpowers... and is paranoid," Robin answered. "I think that's his actual superpower... super paranoia..."

"More importantly... what did you do with explosive birdarangs?" Impulse asked excitedly.

Robin visibly cringed. "Let's just say... there was a design change that I was unaware of and when I grabbed for my birdarang by feel... I swore it was the taser one..."

"Wait, what?" Blue Lantern asked, turning in his seat to better look at Robin.

"See, the explosive bat-and-bird-arangs are slightly heavier, but GranBats has never been super happy with that, and he adjusted the explosives so that it was lighter and I didn't realize I grabbed the new ones until-"

"No, no, no, why were you throwing dangerous weapons without looking at them?" Lantern asked.

"It's training," Robin said shortly. "Anyway, it wasn't my fault... but it might have toppled a giant penny... and then a robotic dinosaur... and the display cases for the suits and-and it was a mess..."

There was another silence. "You have a giant penny and a robotic dinosaur in your hideout?" Impulse demanded. "Man, that is so crash. Why does our place not have giant robot dinos?"

"We're coming up on the warehouse, let's focus on our mission," Nightstar said as she landed behind a small outcropping of trees. "Impulse, since Kid isn't here yet, you run up to the warehouse and see what the outside defenses look like if there are any. Do _not_ go inside, this time. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am, Miss leader, ma'am," Impulse said with a salute and then darted off through the hatch of the jet before it even finished opening. Kid Eternity, whom could magic himself invisible was usually the one to check out a place first, but with how fast Impulse was, he made a good substitute.

The others slowly got out of the jet, but they didn't have long to wait before Impulse was back. "I don't see anyone outside, but all the windows are blacked out with paint so I couldn't see what was going on besides that," he reported. "I think I heard things moving around inside, but that could have just been automated machinery for all I know."

Nightstar hummed in thought. "Alright, we'll take it slow. Arrowette and Kid should be here shortly. Keep minimum radio chatter, but the channels open," she said. "We'll look for subtle ways to get into the building first. Make sure you double check for any alarms before you try a possible entry point."

Nightstar held out an earpiece to Robin. "You'll need this."

"Um, pretty sure that would clash with the radios I already have going... I'll just hack your guys' feed," Robin said without taking the device. "Plus I'd have to take the cowl off and... it's just a hassle," he added at Nightstar's frown.

"Oh, just let him," a new voice said. Just then, Arrowette dropped down from the nearby trees. "It's not like this is going to be a hard mission. Recon on a possibly automated warehouse is training wheels."

Robin scowled a little at the implication that because the mission was easy, it didn't matter what he did, but didn't argue since he was getting what he'd prefer. "Did you see Kid on your way in, Arrowette?" Nightstar asked.

"Nope, but if she were coming in invisible, then well, nobody would see her," Arrowette pointed out.

"She'll let us know when she arrives," Lantern said. "She always does somehow or another."

Nightstar jumped into the air and hovered there for a moment. "Right, let's go. Remember... carefully so that we maintain the element of surprise. We don't want to run into thugs boosted on Venom," Nightstar said before flying off towards the warehouse.

The others scattered but Impulse hung back for a moment with Robin. "Need a lift over there?" he asked.

"Not unless you wanna carry Bat-hound too," Robin said jerking his thumb in the black dog's direction. Ace whined and tilted his head curiously.

Impulse's eyes widened behind his mask. "Yeah, um, I think the two of you at once would be a bit heavy for me," he admitted. "That dog is not small..."

"Well, of course not, he is a guard dog," Robin said. "Thanks for the offer, Pulse, but I got this." Impulse nodded and then zipped off for the warehouse. Robin looked down at the dog beside him and then jerked his head to the side before heading through the small group of trees and then across the field between them and the warehouse.

The fence wasn't even electrified, so it was easy for Robin to snip and then pull the section to the side to allow Ace to slip through the gap. Robin heard a soft buzz and reached up to his right ear for just a brief touch. "Yeah?" he whispered as he carefully got through the hole in the fence as well.

"You coming back to the cave tonight?" Max asked.

"Actually on a mission right now, Oracle," Robin said as he controlled the chain link fence as it tried to snap back into position.

"Ooh, they let you out, huh? You showing them up yet, boy wonder?"

Robin sneaked closer to the building and then pressed himself against the wall. "I'm not trying to show them up," he murmured. "Plus, I'd rather keep everything that my suit can do sort of to myself, for now."

"Bruce's tight-lipped-ness is rubbing off on you, shorty," Max commented. Robin could hear her tapping away at a computer. "Hmm... a warehouse, huh? Not a very big one either. What's going on there?"

"A new type of Slapper, we think," Robin replied as he made his way to a side door. There was a light on above the door that flooded the area with a yellow glow, so Robin turned the ring on his belt to slip into camouflage mode. "I left the analysis up on the computer in the Watchtower, if you wanna see."

Max hummed. "Yeah, I see it. Man, this stuff looks nasty. And, are those mutated growth hormones?"

"Yeah, they match some Poison Ivy used. Now I'm kinda in the middle of something, Oracle," he said as he pressed a small electric disk to the electronic lock of the side door. Robin lifted his arm and started typing along the invisible keys. Luckily, he'd long ago memorized where they were located, so he didn't need them visible.

"Good luck, Robin."

Robin muttered his thanks even as he typed in a few commands. The lock only took a moment to bypass and then he pulled the disk back off. "Alright, Ace. Let's go. Low," he whispered before he carefully turned the handle of the door and opened it just enough to peer inside. Ace crouched down low to the ground immediately. Robin took a moment to properly hack into the rest of the team's radio feed, but just as Nightstar ordered, nobody was talking.

Inside the warehouse, several automated conveyor belts were winding between machines and going every which way. Robin snapped twice to signal Ace to guard before making his way along the wall towards what looked to be an office situated overlooking the warehouse floor. So far Robin didn't spot any people around, but he wasn't about to take that for granted. "Robin, are you inside already?" Superboy asked over the communication link.

"Did you even double check to make sure there was no alarm?" Nightstar demanded.

"Of course I did," Robin replied as he carefully slipped up the set of metal stairs. Well, he didn't, but he put a virus into the computer that would disable any alarm that might be there, so it was functionally the same thing. "Also, you can't see me right, Superboy?" That would be worrisome if he could...

"What do you mean?" Superboy asked.

Robin frowned behind his cowl. As far as he was aware, his cloak should be more than capable of hiding him from Superboy. "I kinda have on a cloaking device right now, Supes..."

"You can cloak!?" Impulse demanded in a whisper. "Does it refract light or-"

"Focus," Nightstar interrupted before Impulse could get a good head of steam behind him.

Robin still wanted to know how Superboy could have seen him but let the matter drop as he knelt down beside the office door and examined the knob. The lock was downright primitive. Robin accessed the lockpicks that were built into his gloves and found one that looked like it might work. He had not picked a mechanical lock in _ages_. Very little in Gotham actually used them. "Several people are moving around underneath the first floor of the warehouse," Superboy said. "And... I didn't actually see you, Robin. I saw your dog. I figured he wouldn't be in there if you weren't."

Ah, well, that at least made sense. "Need to get Bat-Hound his own cloak," Robin muttered as he picked the lock on the door.

"I'm in too," Arrowette said. "Up in the rafters. This place is churning out way too many of these new Slappers."

"Hey. I found a loading dock," Impulse said. "They've got crates marked for all over the place back here. Gotham, Star City, Metropolis, London, Sydney, even Tokyo."

Robin slipped into the office and let out a soft whistle. Ace hurried up the stairs and, once the dog had gotten into the dark room, Robin closed the door again. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late. You already inside?" Kid Eternity's voice asked.

"Some of us are," Blue Lantern said. "Every window I come across is welded shut of all things..."

"Try the vent on the roof," Arrowette said. "That's how I got in."

Robin put the others out of his mind for the moment as he went over to where there was a computer set up on one desk at the far end of the room. After putting Ace on guard duty, Robin turned on the computer and started to hack into it.

With all of the many hacking tools at his disposal, it only took Robin the work of maybe half a minute to actually get into the database and start copying and downloading information. Robin quickly realized that, although the computer looked ancient, it was actually a front for a much more advanced machine that could hold more data than Robin had expected. File after file breezed past and copied themselves for later, more in-depth searching.

"I'm snagging some of these new slappers to look at later," Arrowette said. "They've got another batch here too that look like they might be different too, so I'll get a sample."

"Just be sure that you aren't seen," Nightstar ordered. "Kid, turn invisible and do some recon on what's beneath the warehouse."

"Right."

Robin frowned as he digitally ran right into a firewall. The others were put soundly out of Robin's mind as he began working on getting past the computer defenses to whatever important information might be behind it. The firewall was well constructed, and Robin had to actually spend more than a minute finding a hole he could get through. Whoever was running this operation had clearly spent some time and money getting state of the art programs.

"Um, so, I found the 'people' that are down here..." Kid Eternity said awkwardly.

"Why did you say it that way?" Nightstar asked.

Robin had already discovered the answer in the computer, so answered the question, "They've been testing the new formula at different strengths on people... with some unpleasant results..."

"Yeah... this is kind of Lovecraftian and horrible," Kid said.

"Okay, that sounds ominous," Impulse said.

"Remember how I said the mutagen being used was originally meant for plants?" Robin asked. There was a murmur of assent, so Robin continued, "Well, apparently it doesn't play super nice with the human genetic code."

"Is it reversible?" Blue Lantern asked.

Robin hesitated. "Maybe? Eventually?" he said after a moment's thought. "I mean, this is like Splicing with even more dangerous chemicals than normal. If you can reverse being a giant cat person or something, you should be able to get back to human after this... in theory." Robin really wished he sounded more confident when he'd said that.

"Are you in danger at all, Kid?" Nightstar asked.

"No, all these people are behind glass walls and seem pretty out of it," Kid supplied. "But I'd like to get out of here now."

"Right, see if there's any information you can get down there and then come back up," Nightstar ordered. "Don't linger where you might get caught."

Robin copied yet more files off of the computer, this time about the dozens of shell companies whoever was running this place had used to hide their involvement. "Anybody else see anything of note?" Nightstar asked over the comms.

"I'm emptying out everything from the computers," Robin said. "It'll take another few minutes, but I think I can get all the data."

"So are we just going to leave those people behind?" Impulse asked.

"I'll report it to the league on our way back to the Zeta point," Nightstar answered. "Our job is purely to get information... plus we'd have no way of transporting them out of here."

"Harsh," Impulse muttered.

"Just finish getting everything we can from here before something happens, and we get found out," Nightstar ordered.

"Um... about that..." Superboy said uneasily. "I might have... stumbled into something over here..."

There was a loud alarm suddenly going off, and Robin's head shot up with a mental curse. That was going to be a problem. "Klutz-Kent did it again," Impulse groaned. "You are the _worst_ at stealth!"

Robin quickly hacked into some security camera feeds and spotted Superboy on the fifth that he flipped through. He was struggling with what looked to be a giant plant with glowing blue bio-luminescent splotches all over its long tendrils. The thing seemed to be trying to pull Superboy towards a massive venus-flytrap looking mouth and Superboy had to rip parts of it into pieces. A quick glance and Robin figured that Superboy was in some sort of basement room. Where that basement room _was_ in the complex Robin wasn't sure, but he would find it. Robin let out a quick whistle to Ace as he detached himself from the computer and hurried to the door.

Ace hurried along as Robin ran to where he was pretty sure Superboy was fighting. Already he could hear crashes and shouts. The whole building shook, nearly sending Robin to the ground although he managed to catch himself. The center of the warehouse was filled with conveyors and machinery running automatically and at the far side of that same room was a set of stairs down. Robin had to duck under some bits of moving metal in his dash across the factory, but it was no worse than the training room that was in the Bat Cave, so he managed it without even slowing down.

He jumped down the set of stairs just in time for the wall of the basement to explode. A curse escaped as he threw up his arm to block any debris. Superboy groaned and pushed himself up out of the rumble of the brick wall he'd just flown through. Robin rushed to his side and grabbed at his arm. "You okay?" he asked as he helped the half-Kryptonian up to his feet.

"Yeah, this thing is strong," Superboy answered.

Robin turned his head to look through the hole in the wall to see a flash of white and red blur rushing around the mutated plant. Bolts of purple energy flew from Nightstar's hands to slam into the plant. Huge chunks of green plant flesh burned off with a noxious smell like that of flaming tires. A tendril came flying from nowhere, and Nightstar was walloped in the ribs.

As Nightstar went flying Robin noticed the chunks that had been blown off were moving on the ground. "Oh... that looks bad," he murmured as he reached behind him. "I think we're going to want to keep this bad boy in one piece."

"Why's that?" Impulse asked as he continued running and hitting the main mass of the plant while ducking tendrils. One of the pieces suddenly grew a tendril and grabbed at his foot, catching his ankle and sending the speedster into the ground hard. "Ooof!"

Just then Arrowette slid down the banister of the stairs to land beside Robin. Superboy rushed forward to protect and help a prone Impulse. "So... it can make more of itself. That's... cool," she said as she pulled an arrow from her quiver.

"You have any sort of liquid nitrogen arrows in that thing?" Robin asked as he reached for his own freezing Birdarangs.

"Of course," Arrowette said. "Who do you take me for?"

"Guys! Stand clear!" Robin called as he flung several projectiles at the base of the plant. Two golden arrows went flying past and hit the plant just a moment after Robin's projectiles. Ice formed instantly in a thick shell where the weapons hit and the monster plant stopped moving.

But only for a moment.

The ice shattered and would have hit the group if not for a shield of blue energy created by Blue Lantern in a split second. "Okay... next plan?" Arrowette asked even as both she and Robin had to bail to the side to avoid a plant tentacle.

Ace growled and was on the tentacle in a minute, ripping into it with his sharp teeth and thrashing his head side to side to cause even more damage. The tendril tried to pull back, but Ace had it pinned beneath his front paws. The end ripped off entirely under Ace's jaws, and green plant goo spurted across the floor as the limb recoiled.

"Fry it?" Superboy suggested as he caught another long tendril in his arms and stopped it from hitting Nightstar.

"I can do that," Kid said as she suddenly appeared from nowhere at the base of the stairs. " ** _Eternity!_** " The magical word of power brought down lightning from nowhere to slam into the ground beside the plant. A large man in a toga appeared and started slamming bolt after bolt of electricity into the plant with a wild roar. The tendrils flailed spastically, and everyone in the team had to either dodge out of the way or take cover behind another of Blue Lantern's shields.

Robin flung a taser Birdarang at the still squirming plant even as Nightstar hit it with several more Starbolts. Flaming arrows joined the mix from Arrowette, and after all the light show of lightning, fire, and pure energy stopped, the plant was a charred pile of debris on the ground. The smaller pieces were quickly tossed onto the bonfire of the largest by Impulse who was darting around the room at top speeds. The man in the toga that had appeared faded into nothingness as Kid Eternity came out from behind Superboy and the shield the Lantern put up. When Impulse finally finished he slid to a stop beside where Blue Lantern was floating in his aura of blue light energy. "Ugh... it smells horrible," Impulse said as he waved a hand in front of his face. "Like burning vomit..."

"Nice," Robin drawled as he watched the plant for any signs of it moving.

Superboy carefully prodded one limp and blackened tendril of the plant with the toe of his shoe. "... I think it's dead," he said uncertainly.

"I think we should still take precautions," Blue Lantern said as his glowing blue eyes swept the remains. "The Plants on Ralvidia can regenerate after being turned almost to charcoal if they get enough water..."

"Where's Ralvidia?" Arrowette asked, instantly curious. It wasn't often that BL (as the team tended to shorten moniker) spoke about his many trips into the far reaches of space. Blue Lantern said that the Green Lanterns didn't want him telling tall tales so kept most details to himself.

"About nine quadrillion light years from here..." the Lantern supplied. "It's a very remote and dangerous moon around a small planet within a blue giant star system."

"Soo... we burn it more?" Kid Eternity suggested as she bent down to look closer at the mass. "I can definitely burn it more. I can bring back any number of electricity wielding powerhouses... or fire if you prefer."

Robin shrugged and stepped forward to take a look himself. Ace whined but kept right beside the boy wonder. "I suppose we probably should make doubly sure it won't regenerate. But first, lemme see what actually made this thing." Ace sniffed at the plant as Robin knelt down and used the many sensors of his suit to do a quick study of the plant's structure.

"I'm gonna guess it was mutated," Impulse said.

"I don't think you get points for stating the obvious," Arrowette replied with her voice as dry as a desert.

"Anything jump out at you right away, Robin?" Nightstar asked.

Robin shook his head. "Not more than the fact that it uses the same compound, Praevarazine, as the slappers have and that Ivy used. But I was pretty much expecting that."

"There are canisters of the stuff over here," Impulse chimed in from the far corner. Large fifty-five-gallon barrels with 'Praevarazine' in big block text had been clustered together but were barely visible due to the poor lighting of this area of the basement. "They don't look cracked open or anything though, so it's not like Seymour here was an accidental creation."

"Seymour?" Kid Eternity echoed.

"Dude... have you never seen Rocky Horror?" Impulse asked.

"... You all remember I was born in 1927, right?" Kid Eternity asked. "I haven't yet caught up on everything between when I died in 42 and when Freddy pulled me back into the normal time stream..."

"You're right. I forgot you're an old geezer in a kid body," Impulse said. "My sincerest apologies, Kit-the-obscenely-old."

Kid sighed heavily. "Whippersnappers," she replied lightly. "No respect anymore."

Nightstar shook her head at the members of her team. "Well, if there's nothing else, we should get out of here. I want to get the league in to help those people that were experimented on sooner opposed to later."

The others agreed with that and Robin paused just long enough to take a few small samples of the plant before letting the others incinerate it to ash through whatever powers they had at their disposal. "You sure it's safe to take a bit of it?" Superboy asked as Robin tucked the vial into his belt.

"It's small enough that even if it surprises me, we can burn it before it becomes dangerous," Robin assured him.

"Well, though it didn't go entirely cleanly I'd say this first mission was as successful as we could have hoped," Nightstar said. "Good job," she added to Robin.

Robin smirked and reached down to pat Ace on the side. "Nothing to it."


End file.
